#plus Aaron tj was flexing his muscles in literally every single scene

[hinasho]

Thoughts on Kraven The Hunter (spoiler free)

I tried to be as spoiler free as possible while airing out my thoughts. Any details mentioned in here were already seen in the trailers.

Saw Kraven The Hunter cause the trailers looked fun, and despite the excessive negative reviews I try to go into movies open minded.

I know NOTHING about Kraven as a character. All I know is that he’s a Spiderman villain, but that’s it. I know nothing else about him AT ALL. I didn’t even know what animal abilities he had until it was shown in the movie. So I went into this completely blind.

Good Things First

The actors themselves did okay. I don’t know the comic book counterparts to any of these characters, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson did okay as Kraven, Ariana DeBose as Calypso, etc. They all did alright. Nobody was bad, but I think the only “great” performance was Alessandro Nivola as The Rhino. He was fully into the goofiness of his character and was always really fun in his scenes. He was a peach.

Looks-wise, Aaron & Ariana looked amazing. Watching pretty people is a treat for the eyes.

I really liked how they emphasized Sergei’s relationship with nature. There were a lot of tiny details that highlighted how in tune he was with the natural world, and little tidbits like that were some of my favorite moments.

As for the action, it was very intense. The big chase scene is probably my favorite chase in awhile. It was creative and very well done! Anyone saying this was a “boring film” are just objectively wrong as the action always kept you engaged and alert.

Bad Things

Audio

The sound mixing was abysmal, especially the voiceovers. Absolutely horrible.

I swear there were scenes where the actors were talking to one another, but they must’ve had to re-record their lines in the studio and layer it on top, except the writers must’ve changed the script when the actors got in the booth, and for some ungodly reason the producers didn’t allow them to reshoot, because I SWEAR there were several scenes where the dialogue did NOT match the way the actors were moving their lips!!!

I don’t know if I hallucinated it or not, but I even think there was one moment where Ariana DeBose isn’t saying anything at all, fully closed mouth, but there’s a VO of her talking (in the scene) to Kraven. We can see her face. She was not speaking, but the audio still played as if she was. Maybe I’m mistaken. I hope so, because there is no way the editing could be THAT horrendous. Right??

The bad audio was very distracting, but I did have a few other issues as well.

Script

The script was very… it wasn’t good. The dialogue that was written I mean. Some of the things the characters were saying was very corny and I know I know it’s a superhero movie so a bit of cheese is expected. But it was just a bit too much for me I guess.

Plus there were narrative decisions that just felt confusing and/or way too rushed. The dynamic between Kraven and Calypso was very rushed imo. There was a high level of trust between the two that felt wildly unearned.

Less Is Better

There were a lot of cool displays of abilities that would’ve felt more impactful if they weren’t shown constantly throughout the movie. There were other villains besides Kraven and Rhino, and their abilities were interesting, but the movie kept spamming them until they lost their luster. So then during their big scenes, they didn’t have the same awe-ing effect.

Plus there was a LOT of “telling” rather than “showing”. We get it. Sergei doesn’t want to be like his father. We hear you. There is no need to verbally repeat that several times. Would’ve been much more effective to show actual parallels between the two and some of their actions. Basically I think we should’ve gotten a little bit more of the father so that we the audience can say if Sergei was anything like him or not.

The Final Shot

So first off, there are a lot of scenes in the trailer that are not in the movie. A lot of scenes that reeled me in, only for them to not be in the movie at all.

On a related note, the final shot in the movie was… I got the sense it would mean a lot to longtime Kraven fans, but… just… my god. I really don’t mean to be rude but it was so cringy!! I hate that word but that scene felt so forced I physically cringed in on myself.

They could’ve made that final shot significantly more powerful than it was. But it was just not moving or impactful in anyway, even though it was clearly meant to be. The final shot making the audience walk out the theatre saying “that was so forced” is not a good sign.

Final Thoughts

Despite my complaints, I probably would watch this again (at home) because the action was fun and everyone looked really good.

But the writing, audio, set design, etc. was just not good. (Yes I am including set design. A lot of the locations felt like film sets rather than actually lived in / inhabited places. I think the one place that felt “authentic” was Calypso’s workplace and that was it.)

The actors & the action sequences are pretty much the only elements that make it watchable.

I went into this with a completely open mind, and really did want to enjoy it. And while I don’t think it was “slop” or “hot garbage” like many reviews have been exaggerating, the movie was still just not the best.